Taking care of our pets

I love my dog and there is something special about the bond that we have with our pets. As much as I love my kids, they’re not always excited to see me when I walk through the door – my dog is. Animals are an endless source of love, loyalty, affection, and energy – which is why it’s so hard to let them go.

I recently caught New York Times piece, “How to Set a Price on the Life of a Beloved Pet?” describing the great lengths many of us go to in order to prolong the lives of our pets. With the growth of innovative medical and technological advances, some of us are spending thousands of dollars on treatments like chemotherapy to keep pets alive.

It is true that our dogs and cats have shorter lives than we do, and the extent to which we will go to care for our pets is admirable, exemplifying the love and compassion they seemingly show us. But we should be putting just as many resources into planning and solidifying medical care wishes for our mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, daughters and sons – not just our dogs, cats, parrots, fish, ducks and hamsters.

While some pet owners may struggle over making the right decision for their animals that are never able to fully communicate, we can fill out advance medical directives for ourselves and save family members from the difficulty of making important health care decisions on our behalf.

At MyDirectives, we believe that everyone should document their medical wishes. Some people have even used our resources to go beyond documenting personal medical wishes – such as one of our friends, a single woman who used MyDirectives to post video instructions for how to feed her cat should she become incapacitated or hospitalized.

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